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Movies

Christian Movies, Secular Critics

April 20, 2011

by Warren Moore A few days ago, we discussed the struggles over the amount of “Christian content” in the film Soul Surfer, currently chugging along in the marketplace despite generally hostile reviews. Interestingly, the movie seems to be doing just fine with audiences, with an 85% audience approval rating. However, at sixseeds.tv, Timothy Dalrymple examines the discrepancy between critical/elite opinions and the Christian audience. Asking why Christian movies get slagged by the critics, he moves beyond the pat answers pretty quickly and comes up with what I think are some real insights. For example: The producers of Soul Surfer and the Hamilton family (with an assist from Carrie Underwood) famously fought over the extent to which Bethany’s faith should be foregrounded in the movie. tells us that her faith is made “plenty explicit.” Now, I am generally of the “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” camp, but I find the word “explicit” interesting here. Is there something vaguely offensive, even obscene, about public displays on faith? responds to faith-talk on the silver screen in roughly the same way that Christians respond to bare flesh. A certain minimal amount is permissible, after which one should hide

Cowabunga! Studio Tries to De-Christianize True Story

April 13, 2011

By Warren Moore

Cowabunga! Studio Tries to De-Christianize True Story

by Warren Moore You may remember the story of Bethany Hamilton, the surfer from Hawaii who lost an arm to a shark in 2003, and has made her way back to riding the waves. Her inspirational story has made its way to your local multiplex, in the form of the new movie Soul Surfer. However, keeping the “soul” in the movie was a challenge in itself, as CNN reports. Hamilton credits her Christian faith and the support of people at her church for overcoming her injury and returning to her surfing career. In particular, one important scene in the movie involves Hamilton’s youth group leader, Sarah Hill, counseling her in the wake of losing her arm. While Hill is likely pleased to have been played by Carrie Underwood, she was less pleased with what nearly happened on set: In one scene, Hill’s character is shown counseling Hamilton as she struggles with living as an amputee. She reads from Jeremiah 29:11 ” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ “The morning they went to shoot that scene, said Hill,

Review: Atlas Shines

April 13, 2011

By Bruce Edward Walker

“This isn’t a movie, it’s a newsreel,” commented my Atlas Shrugged, Part I viewing companion – an old Mackinac Center colleague. Spot on. The film’s source material is more than a half-century old and its author, Ayn Rand, is often characterized as a Cassandra predicting dystopian outcomes for New Deal policies, ever-expanding government intervention in the marketplace, and rent-seeking corporations. In 2011, those predictions have bore fruit: a $14 trillion deficit; a government shutdown; regulatory bureaucrats run amuck; bailouts of banks and automotive companies; and corporate donors such as Google’s Eric Schmidt and General Electric’s Jeff Immelt receiving most-favored status at the presidential table. Our current situation is dire, and Rand – ever the scold even 29 years after her demise – speaks from her grave: “I told you so.” Full disclosure: I was never a fan of the 1,200-page doorstop Rand dared call a “novel.” Sorry, Randroids, it’s the lit major in me. The tome suffers from poorly drawn characters, plodding plotting, and stilted, didactic dialogue that could’ve been supplied by any given window washer at the end of the exit ramp. It may be one of the 20th century’s best-loved books, but while it succeeds as a novel

Covering Up “Camelot”

April 11, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray Of course, there was a very real conspiracy behind The History Channel’s decision to dump the miniseries . It doesn’t take Glenn Beck’s blackboard to connect those dots. But after watching The Kennedys, I am completely at a loss to figure out why anyone seriously found the material objectionable. The broadcast broke no new ground. Likely, the keepers of the fictional Camelot flame simply didn’t want another reminder of the vast disconnect between calculated and conjured myth in the wake of Mr. Kennedy’s tragic death and actual reality. Whether one reads a good book about the Kennedy years or watches The Kennedys on ReelzChannel, one thing is clear—there were potential ethical and moral time bombs threatening his presidency. And there is a credible case to be made that had Kennedy lived beyond that fateful fall day in 1963, and had he managed to be reelected in 1964 (not at all a sure thing), he may not have survived a second term, politically. That’s right. As Hugh Sidey suggested before his death in 2005—the same Hugh Sidey, who as an editor at Time Magazine during the Kennedy years, was also a Camelot insider—JFK’s various and sundry moral,

Real Life and Fiction Collide in Great Britain

April 8, 2011

By Mike Gray

Real Life and Fiction Collide in Great Britain

By Mike Gray One in five Britons think Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and even Blackadder were genuine historical figures Twenty per cent of Britons believe the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Blackadder are based on historical personalities, a survey has found. Others believe there was a real Captain Mainwaring leading the nation’s home defence during the war and that Dad’s Army was based on him. Others think Clark Kent and Indiana Jones were genuine people too, according to Ask Jeeves. The confusion between fact and fiction goes both ways, it has emerged, with other respondents to the survey believing Che Guevara, Florence Nightingale and outlaw Jesse James were fictional, not real. — Daily Mail, 5 April 2011 Which of these are real and which fictional?

The Wit of Stillman

April 4, 2011

By Lars Walker

By Lars Walker On Sunday I watched my weekly Netflix rental, this one a movie I’d only seen once before—Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. I’m going to have to buy the whole Whitman trilogy, delightful films that yield increasing rewards with each viewing. Stillman is apparently a Christian of some kind (for years he’s been trying unsuccessfully to do a movie about believers in the Caribbean. Metropolitan opens with the chords of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”). Stillman delights in turning cultural expectations on their heads. In Metropolitan, his first film, he portrays Manhattan “Yuppies” (one character insists they ought to be called “Urban Haute Bourgeouise”) as sympathetic and even mildly disadvantaged. In Barcelona, two American cousins, a businessman and a naval officer, deal with the European narrowmindedness and prejudice. And The Last Days Of Disco, set in Manhattan in a strangely ambivalent time period, celebrates the discotheque as a place of joy and a strange kind of innocence. At one point in Metropolitan, Tom Townsend (Edward Clements) quotes a Lionel Trilling review of Mansfield Park to debutante Audrey (Carolyn Farina), in order to explain his dislike for Jane Austen. Audrey asks him what books of Austen’s he’s read. He says,

Rango’s Spiritual Journey

April 1, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray I haven’t seen Rango, the Johnny Depp animated feature, but Daniel Krawisz has, and he thinks there’s more depth to the film than the usual Hollywood fare: I saw Rango to enjoy the combined hijinks of Johnny Depp and other cartoon animals, and in this I was not disappointed; however, it was not at all the most memorable aspect of the experience. Rango led me to entirely unexpected places. It is not simply a cartoon about a lizard but a journey into the soul, and it depicts the trials of individuation haunted by the constant specter of death. Interleaved with this basic theme are strong libertarian overtones of the relationship of the individual to society and establishing a connection between redemption and the search for wealth. Rango is intensely metaphorical. It is full of allusions to other films and stories. From the start, the stream of allusions takes one into an associative state of mind, a state receptive to symbols. Rango takes place in an Old West–themed world with animal characters, but to me these all feel like a facade — the movie is a dream, and real action takes place in the mind of the unseen

A Movie Villain Without Compare

April 1, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray Before there was Hannibal Lecter . . . . . . before Vito Corleone . . . . . . before Norman Bates . . . . . . even before Bruce . . . . . . there was that notorious coward, bully, cad and thief . . . Dan Backslide! You can watch him here.

“The Last Messiah”

March 28, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray Is The Coming Is Near the Iranian equivalent of The Triumph of the Will? Not hardly. Roger L. Simon agrees: The message of the short film was clear: The current crisis in the Middle East (Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, now Syria … all of it) is a harbinger that the Mahdi (the hidden one, the Twelfth Imam) was coming soon and that, in the ensuing chaos and destruction, Khomeini’s version of Shia Islam would shortly rule over the entire globe. It seemed like an Iranian version of The Triumph of the Will. Although not remotely as artful as Leni Riefenstahl’s film, The Coming was in many ways as blood-curdling, perhaps more so for its corny time-lapse photography of flowers opening and oddly stiff narration. I thought it should get as wide a dispersion as possible. And yet simultaneously I thought that was useless. The people who would most need to see this video — our liberal/left intelligentsia — either would not watch it or dismiss it as “mere propaganda” and of little significance. Nevertheless, what the film says provokes thought. If I understand it correctly, Muslims with an apocalyptic mindset believe the Mahdi will soon return to earth

‘The China Syndrome’ — How Hysterical Media Attempted to Ruin a Vital Industry and Still Tries To Do It Every Chance They Get

March 24, 2011

By Mike Gray

‘The China Syndrome’ — How Hysterical Media Attempted to Ruin a Vital Industry and Still Tries To Do It Every Chance They Get

By Mike Gray You could learn a lot about life from Jane Fonda — but only if she keeps her mouth shut. Just days before the reactor shutdown at Three Mile Island, Columbia Pictures’ movie The China Syndrome was released. In that fictional thriller, a reporter played by Jane Fonda accidentally witnesses an “accident” at a nuclear power plant. When she tries to report the story she finds an extensive industry cover up including dummied records. Like any anti-industry Hollywood film corporate goons even attempt to kill those trying to expose the plant’s safety problems. Unfortunately, thanks to the timing and the news media the “China Syndrome” became nearly synonymous with Three Mile Island despite stark differences. According to a New York Times magazine article from Sept. 16, 2007, Fonda was “firmly anti-nuke before making the film,” but became a “full-fledged crusader” after TMI. Co-star Michael Douglas was “converted” to the anti-nuke position after watching “eerily similar scenes from The China Syndrome” in actual news coverage of Three Mile Island. As is too often the case, the entertainment media’s concept of a nuclear disaster had a huge impact on the news coverage of Three Mile Island. Just two minutes and

Libertarian Science Fiction from Non-libertarians

March 11, 2011

By Mike Gray

Libertarian Science Fiction from Non-libertarians

By Mike Gray human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange — meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State. — Anthony Burgess On the Mises Daily website, Jeff Riggenbach continues with his study of libertarian themes in science fiction: This essay is about . . . writers, none of whom was a libertarian, but each of whom wrote something back in the 1960s that made a significant contribution to the libertarian tradition. The two authors he covers here include Anthony Burgess, whose A Clockwork Orange was described by Burgess himself as “a jeu d’esprit knocked off for money in three weeks.” Riggenbach warns us Clockwork is . . . not an easy book to read, and I don’t mean because of the ultra-violence, though that is pretty sickening, certainly. What I mean when I say it’s not easy to read

PG-rated ‘Rango’ Has Anti-Smoking Advocates Fuming

March 10, 2011

By Mike D'Virgilio

PG-rated ‘Rango’ Has Anti-Smoking Advocates Fuming

I saw this title at Big Hollywood and fell in love with the movie instantly. Although I don’t go to movies often, given you spend $5 for the movie (twilight always) and $50 for popcorn and soda, I think this weekend Rango is getting my money. Of course I will bring a blind fold for the kids. Anti-smoking advocates are calling the animated PG movie Rango a public health hazard for its numerous depictions of smoking. The film, which opened Friday and topped the weekend box office with a gross of $38 million, includes at least 60 instances of characters smoking, said Kori Titus, CEO of the Sacramento-based non-profit Breathe California. Don’t all you Californians just breathe easier knowing Kori Titus and her merry band of busybodies are looking out for your precious lungs? Goodness knows you can’t do that yourself! “A lot of kids are going to start smoking because of this movie,” said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco. Youths who frequently see smoking onscreen are two to three times more likely to begin smoking than peers who rarely see it depicted, he said. Oh, horror

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Movies

Christian Movies, Secular Critics

Cowabunga! Studio Tries to De-Christianize True Story

Review: Atlas Shines

Covering Up “Camelot”

Real Life and Fiction Collide in Great Britain

The Wit of Stillman

Rango’s Spiritual Journey

A Movie Villain Without Compare

“The Last Messiah”

‘The China Syndrome’ — How Hysterical Media Attempted to Ruin a Vital Industry and Still Tries To Do It Every Chance They Get

Libertarian Science Fiction from Non-libertarians

PG-rated ‘Rango’ Has Anti-Smoking Advocates Fuming

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